May 2024

Dear Family and Friends

Sorry this letter is coming to you a bit late.  It has been quite busy since I got back from the Italy Scout.  It’s also been quite emotional as well.

Upon my return from Italy, Wolfi, who has been the Senior Pastor and leader over the past 20 years that I have been in London, was given the news that there is no more treatment for his cancer.  He is now in palliative care as far as the medical team is concerned.  Two years ago, he and his wife Ali, transferred leadership of the West Kensington congregation to Dave and Tammy.  This was always in the plans, but it did happen sooner because of his cancer diagnosis.

We are in full on miracle faith mode right now for him and Teri (Mana) as they are both classified as being in palliative care.  Both of them are doing well and looking great. God has been so good! Wolfi has been and is a father figure and leader to all of our churches across Europe but during this time his main focus is to set things in place as we fight for healing.

Please continue to pray with us for miraculous healing for him and for Teri.

The Italy Scout took place in two cities – Naples and Bari.  Our main purpose of a scout is to go into a city, gathering information about the city through prayer walks, walking the city and finding out the cultural and spiritual atmosphere, trying to make contacts, and going onto university campuses to see what evangelistic tools might work best.  The 4 of us put our walking shoes on and asked the Holy Spirit to guide us as we explored each city.

Naples and Bari are two very different cities with Naples being very populated with tourists from all over the world and Italy. Whereas Bari was less populated and felt VERY Italian.  We gathered loads of information, met with some church leaders, and walked and prayed throughout each city.  We were also able to try a few evangelism tools but not as much as we wanted because of graduations and holidays.  Unfortunately, none of our investigating before the trip indicated that university life would be at a minimum when we were there.

When we were in Bari we kept receiving words and scriptures about drawing water with joy from the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3). We prayed into this - salvation and a restoration of the joy of their salvation. The team also kept looking for old wells, and we could find none. On the last day, one of the intercessors felt that we should go to the highest place in the city. We found the highest church tower and just behind it came across a well! The well is between a theological institute and what looked like must have been a Jewish gathering place.  There was even a plaque on the wall that read “From Bari the Torah will go out”.

All of the information we collected about the cultural and spiritual atmosphere as well as the information we collected from people will go into a document to help future church planters who are considering Italy or one of these cities.  Thank you so much for your prayers to make this Scout a success.

Finally, I am also continuing to look for a new place to live.  Please pray for the right area and housemate(s).  The friend I am staying with at the moment has been a huge blessing allowing me to stay until I find a place.  God is faithful so I know there is a place for me!

Thank you again for EVERYTHING! 

Lots of Love

Traci